Yelp and Foursquare, Google Maps and Siri — these are just the most recent efforts in Local Marketing. The folks over at Dream Systems Media put together this amazing graphic on the History of Local Search today. It shares just how far we have come with local marketing, from word-of-mouth through radio and TV to today’s local search. We wanted to share this timeline with our readers over here so enjoy and Kudos to the DSM team for putting together such an awesome graphic on local marketing!

The holidays are upon us, and many businesses local and nationwide are gearing up for the Black Friday sales frenzy. Be a savvy shopper and utilize these handy applications in order to find the best deals, compare prices, check to see where your desired item is on sale in your area and more!

How Groundbreaking Thinkers Spread Their Ideas — Inc.com

If you’re an entrepreneur or just a savvy businessperson, you know that knowing how to think critically in order to generate out-of-the-box ideas is a vital skill. However, once you’ve come up with your brilliant pitch, how to you get your audience to come to you? Inc.com’s Jeff Haden has some key concepts to share about the simple logistics of getting your concepts out there and your audience engaged with the message.

Photos Draw Most Facebook Interactions, Links Draw the Least — Small Business SEM

When you’re busily engaging with your fans on Facebook and promoting your online presence, it seems that putting up photos will elicit the most response and engagement on your fans’ parts. Sharing links, however, is the weakest option and comparatively offers very little reward for the effort. The theory makes sense: visual stimulation is always a plus for getting attention, and with the new Facebook UI users can simply click on a posted picture to expand a gallery-style mini-window, eliminating the need to leave Facebook itself. Will you be putting more effort into curating your business’s photo gallery now?

Google+ Rolls Out Trending Topics — Mashable

With Google+ making huge strides in recovering their previously-drooping user base and opening up to the business sphere, it seems evident that they’ve taken a good, hard look at what other social networks are doing well. The introduction of trending topics, a list of the most popular and oft-discussed items on the social network, offers users an effortless peek into the most relevant news of the moment. Several other UI tweaks have been made as well — head over to Mashable to check it out!

8 Tips to Maximize Your Branded Presence in the Google Local Search Results — Bluemnthals

With the recent hubbub over a plethora of Google service redesigns, some may be wondering where to go from here with regard to getting themselves noticed in the local search sphere. Never fear! This handy guide is an excellent overview to making sure your business is front-and-center when searchers are looking for you.

While some discouraging stats about the use of Google+ have emerged in recent days, there’s no reason to give up the ghost just yet — particularly with the recent introduction of G+ business pages. If you’re hesitating to jump into the pool and establish your business on G+, linger no longer — Inc.com’s Abram Brown is here to give you the skinny on why getting in early is a smart move for small businesses and mega-corporations alike.

Content Marketing Essentials: Tactical Advice From A To Z — Search Engine Land

For those of you who just don’t know where to start making your web content sparkle, this 26-tidbit-long list provides a fantastic resource for your publication, website, blog or newsfeed. Content is king, they say — so go check out this list and don’t let yours languish for another minute!

Places Reviews: Getting Offline Online — Search Engine Guide

With the recent shakeups to Google Place Pages and the diminishment of third-party reviews, making sure the online word of mouth about your business is positive is more important than ever — particularly when it comes to Google reviews. Since these pieces function as both a ranking factor and a critical metric, spurring viewers to click through to your site, it’s important to make sure they’re in top-notch shape so you can present the best face to the public. This article offers handy tips on encouraging reviews with a handily-placed and easily generatable QR code.

How percolation time can make you a better writer — SuccessWorks

With the breakneck speed of contemporary society, it can be hard to find a few moments to meditate on the details of your day. The simple act of reflection can be enormously beneficial both personally and with regard to work. Here, SucessWorks’ Heather Lloyd-Martin shares some of the transformative powers of “percolation time,” particularly when applied to your writing projects and beyond.

5 Ways to Give Your Content Marketing New Life — TopRank Blog

Creative content can be a tricky beast, demanding immense amounts of time, energy and skill on the part of its creator to really jump off the page when read. This step-by-step guide from Heidi Cohen, President of Riverside Marketing Strategies, is invaluable for those of us whose websites’ content just don’t seem to be quite dazzling enough. Read on to learn about targeting your audience, respecting the reader and staying relevant in a fast-paced sphere of business.

Google Places results page when no selection is highlighted.

Results page with mini-Place page expanded.

This is a noteworthy move for Google Local, given the powerful results that the “red pin” logo has attained over the last few years. The mini-Place Page embedded within search results seems to agree with the growing shift toward minimalism the company has encouraged in its recent redesigns, such as the sleek-and-clean new Google Reader. Additionally, the new system serves an important purpose in helping searchers find the things they’re looking for (location, directions, reviews, pictures and details, et cetera) without actually leaving the SERPs. Google is also making it easier on its searchers to review and edit local places listings by placing a feedback link (visible in the second, expanded screenshot) directly in the foldout, thus helping prevent problems like the infamous potential to mess with competitor’s listings via maliciously reporting a business as “closed.” With this error seemingly remedied or at least remediated, it will be interesting to see if other Google bugs such as the appearance of potentially inappropriate photos on Place pages will be given attention as well.

Given the increased power of many browsers and the capability offered by new tools such as HTML5, it’s clear that most users’ browsing capabilities can handle the change — but is it an innovative way to get the data you need without having to trawl through multiple unique pages, or a confusing overload of information? What do you think?

Google has a crackerjack team of people helping to make their products bigger and better all the time, or at least, that’s the impression we get from them. I just might have caught an embarrassing typo in Google Docs last week, but otherwise, they seem to be pretty much on the ball. That is, unless you visit their Places page, which apparently is hot to show you photos of women’s bare breasts and much more — if the place you’re looking for happens to be a cosmetic surgeon’s office.

Of course, the websites for most cosmetic surgeons feature a before and after page, but traditionally it takes some clicks to get to and obviously are not plastered all over the landing page. I’m sure some people would be impressed if they went to a doctor’s site and the first thing they saw was a pair of surgically-perfected double D’s, but most medical professionals prefer a subtler approach. And who can blame them?

Speaking of class, Google, where’s yours? SafeSearch protects what images we see (although, admittedly, even Moderate can be a bit racy at times), but surely businesses will be less than pleased to see that they are being represented by a wall of women without their tops. Not that the images themselves are shameful, mind, but that’s the type of thing that should be taking place behind several layers of clickthrough. On the other hand, surely cosmetic surgeons will feel compromised if they have to pull their before and after galleries from their websites, as potential clients will want to see what the final products of their work looks like.

It’s a little faux-pax … but nothing Google can’t remedy. Still, will they fix it? Since the images are clinical and not sexual in nature, they may have slipped through SafeSearch’s protocols. If Places automatically pulls the most viewed images, as intelligent as Google may seem, this still proves it to be a modern machine — not quite capable of thinking for itself just yet. We may have to wait a few more years until our networks can provide the same thoughtful attention to detail that humans do. Maybe we’ll be useful for a while longer after all!

Google is feeding local business owners to the wolves with their latest Places update. Lior Ron, Google Places Product Manger, announced yesterday evening that Google will be “helping” business owners keep their business listings updated by now allowing anyone, mischievous competitors included, to edit your entire Places listing for you. Yes, even if it is verified.

How… thoughtful of Google.

Google has had a busy year. The launch of “Facebook killer” Google+ surely had many of their available hands busy, but apparently not too busy to keep working on acquisitions: It was announced today that Google has purchased Zagat, the well-known publisher of restaurant and business ratings.

Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Local, Maps and Location Services for Google, shared in a Google blog post that she was “thrilled” to announce the acquisition. She says: “Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering—delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world.”

Mayer also mentions that Google search and Google Maps will now be integrated into Zagat, making it an even more powerful tool.

Google clearly hopes to capitalize on the expertise of Zagat, which has been in the business of gathering and processing user-generated content for 32 years, long before Yelp! (and even the internet itself). Google has already tried to purchase Yelp! in the past, but this seems like a better bet by far, as Zagat carries the reputation of their name and pedigree and seem like a better match for what Google wants to achieve.

If Google was to consider the same route OpenTable is promoting and combine it with Zagat, they could be looking at one of the most powerful user generated tools out there — and one sure to elicit a powerful reaction from users. Yelp! allows me to look up user ratings and find an address on a restaurant, but what if I could also make a reservation from my phone, without having to wait on hold on a busy Friday night? It’s genius, and not only that, it’s what tech-savvy users are coming to expect.

What do you expect from Google’s latest acquisition? Do you think that Zagat will become bigger and better thanks to this buyout?

Our current goal is to improve an international client’s local rankings for their collection of Playa del Carmen hotels and condos. Now, if this would have been a U.S. or Canadian based client, I wouldn’t be writing this blog post, but taking local SEO to the land of the Aztecs and the Mayas certainly added a twist of lime to my typical local cocktail. The local SEO landscape of Mexico hasn’t been as thoroughly developed as it’s other North American neighbors. To give you an idea of how uncharted this territory is, Google Maps is still in beta testing for Mexico. This means there is a good deal of room for error, so you have to make sure to bring your A-game.

Google’s Spam Report Page Gets “Biggest Refresh” In Years — Search Engine Land

The Webmaster Tools spam report form has been completely updated and refreshed, heralding the biggest change to the feature in a good 10 years. There are now several discrete forms for different kinds of spam instead of one catch-all field, with options for “paid links” and “malware” among other specific spam issues.

The 3 Pillars of Local Search Reviews — Search Engine Journal

Local search is a significantly dynamic and shifting branch of web search — just think of the onslaught of check-in services that have cropped up in recent memory — and this changeability has led to what SEJ’s Mike Ramsey dubs as “storm chasers,” those who are so quick to cash in on the next big thing that they abandon their efforts as soon as shiny new feature or social app comes onto the scene. This has proven true with Google’s recent focus on user-generated reviews and all but exclusion of third-party sources. Here, Ramsey gives a few pointers on the discerning review-seeker’s strategies for the local search industry.

Outbrain for Mobile Integrates Content Recommendation Links for Mobile Websites — Social Times

In some circumstances, a well-placed related content link can do a lot more for your viewing stats than the most carefully targeted advertisements. Outbrain, the recommendation engine that powers related content discovery services for high-profile sites such as USA Today, the New York Post and the Atlantic, has now adapted this strategy for mobile websites to “[enable] publishers to boost their mobile traffic and revenue, while enhancing the user experience by providing personalized links to recommended content for readers who are accessing the site from their mobile device.”

Small Business SEO: How to Check Your Backlinks — Search Engine Watch

Are you a small business just starting to navigate the wide world of SEO? Take a gander at this handy guide to basic backlinking and kick-start the journey into off-site marketing, monitoring your links and figuring out the numbers.

Google Buys The Dealmap for Offers — ProNet Advertising

Google has acquired DealMap, a local deal-mapping service that provides location-based deals to potentially tens of millions of bargain shoppers. For a company that was only just started in 2010, DealMap has had an impressive growth rate, already breaking the 2 million users mark with a substantial 85 million US visitor demographic. With the recent launch of Google Offers, the company’s foray into local Groupon-like deal networking could be picking up steam.